Consulting, Workshops/Retreats, and Group Faciliatation

Groups together for a weekend or together for the long-haul sometimes benefit from skilled companionship, especially around difficult topics.

Fundraising, board development, volunteer management, strategic planning, writing, and creating procedure flows are my nerd-y delights. I bring an outsider's eyes to your situation, make recommendations, and carry out the ones that fall within my skillset. I work best with mission-driven non profits that are on fire to bring their glimpse of the Good that is Possible into the real world. (This includes faith communities, community organizations, professional associations, and more.)

Workshops/Teaching

Sometimes I teach content from the list of things I know deeply (For a big list, please see my C.V.) Other times, I am the smiling heart from "somewhere else" who comes to walk along side a group that needs a fresh presence, or some new language around an old issue. I have experience leading programs in retreat centers, churches, office buildings, homes, and more.

Special Interests

Volunteer engagement and management; Fundraising, Strategic Planning, Faith in Action/Applied Ethics, Discernment, Leadership Development, Spirituality and Money, Spirituality and the Body, Prayer, Dreamwork for Community Building, and Customized Personal Retreats on the island of Martha's Vineyard.

"Jennie Isbell’s gifts in group spiritual direction have brought exceptional value to our denomination’s growing fundraising and stewardship work. With clarity and grace, Jennie led our team – consisting of volunteers and staff - through exercises to heal our relationship with money, opening us to new possibilities for how our faith community could more fully live into the spiritual and material abundance we yearn for. Blending the rigor of a seasoned professional and the tenderness and wonder of a mystic, Jennie’s work with us models, encourages, challenges and inspires new and practical hope. Our volunteers feel clearer and more confident about their vital role in our shared ministry, and our donors feel more valued and welcomed to the table even as their trust in our stewardship of their gifts is deepened. I would recommend Jennie’s work to anyone working at the intersection of faith, leadership and resource development - or to those who hope to build a team that integrates these areas.

Jennie’s deep faith and fierce commitment to integrity and effectiveness are two of the stronger gifts she brings to this work. Everyone involved in the processes she has facilitated with us has been challenged to bring their service to a new level of commitment and clarity. She is fearless and humble in bringing her full self to her ministry, blending seasoned expertise with safe-yet-edgy self-disclosure and good humor that sets minds and hearts at ease. In so doing, Jennie gives those around her permission to do the same. Jennie has a gift for finding the right questions to guide the group as we seek Truth together.

As a caution: Don’t ask Jennie to work with you if you don’t want to be challenged to grow in your faith—and the quality and efficacy of how you put that faith in to practice. But if you’re seeking skillful, experienced, and unflappable accompaniment on a unique journey of growth and change for your organization or community, I couldn’t recommend her more highly.”

Noah Merrill

"Jennie's discernment workshops at the Friends Committee on National Legislation touched the hearts and souls of the Young Fellows who come to work for a year in Washington DC for peace, justice and environmental sustainability. She helped them think about vocation and not only profession. Every time I hear Jennie speak or I read her work reflecting on discernment and prayer, I am reminded that God calls us to not only think with our heads, but to listen with our hearts and lead with our lives."

Diane Randall

Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation

"Jennie is a gifted facilitator who meets participants where they are and guides them with care toward the goals to which they aspire. We co-led a weekend retreat focused on leadership and spiritual practices. It was amazing to watch Jennie start with the big picture in each session and capably accompany the participants toward the center of their own spiritual yearnings. By the end of our time together, every person had deepened their understanding of the themes and engaged important questions in meaningful and transformational ways. I have the utmost respect for Jennie and the ministries she shares."